The Light Within
gurupurnima 2025
On many occasions, I feel very grateful to come from a culture that honors and cherishes all the various facets of life. To be brought up in this day and age requires an immense amount of effort and work, not only from your own inner being, but the guidance and ushering required from the people in our lives is immense.
The fact that we really are brought up amongst others, raised in a village, not living on an island (insert all of the other cliches here about how man is a social creature), goes to show that there is so much more than what our minds and bodies can handle all alone. If anything, we get the blessings of other to witness our own reflections moment to moment.
And how beautiful this all is, right?
The ability to be in communion with others. To learn and grow from our environment. To feel a sense of belonging to something, someone maybe.
Each year, around this time, a very important holiday or festival falls on the full moon of July—gurupurnima. To break it down:
Guru, means you know, guru--a teacher; and purnima means full moon. It’s a day to honor the gurus in your life. Your formal teachers, your spiritual teachers, and anyone who has shed some light in your life.
There are many instances where we have forgetten the importance a teacher plays in our life. They're responsible for the majority of our education and shaping the character of our beings. They’re responsible for our upbringing, bringing out the strengths, helping them to shine forward for the world to see.
Today, we’ve sort of dumbed down the importance a guru plays. But in actuality, a guru is more than just an expert in a field. It’s beyond the finance gurus, philosophy gurus, and even those who claim to be a love guru here and there. From a true Vedic perspective, a guru is much more than just an expert on a topic or an enlightened being. He is one who is knowledgeable in all fields, one who is joyful, one who has no attachments, one who is multi-talented. He is revered right along with the mother and father.
"Acharya devo bhava"--respect your teacher/guru as though he is God.
In Sanskrit, another definition for guru is heavy. And isn’t that so appropriate? A guru is more than an expert. They bring stability into our life. A foundation to stand on, pulling me into their gravitational force. Grounding me into whatever it is within that is meant to be my purpose, my dharma. He is our foundation.
Beyond just this simplistic view of what a guru is, the most important role they play… a guru is one who helps you uncover and discover the true guru within yourself. One of my own teachers always proclaimed to us in class that "your true guru is yourself." And any other guru's job is to lead you on the path of finding that inner being.
We are our own teachers.
It’s not a coincidence that gurupurnima is celebrated year in and year out on a full moon, because they are our full moon. They are the light, but they bring that light from deep within us out to the surface. They are the reason our radiance extends beyond just our sole being, but out and into the ethers. And on the darkest night, the guru casts a shining light for us to see where to take the next step.
This gurupurnima, take the time to show gratitude to all those who have shed light in your life. Those who have been a full moon to you--bright and radiant, full of soma and ojas. Those who have enlivened you and given you a sense of being and a path of purpose. But more importantly, give gratitude to yourself--the true inner guru that guides you every step of the way. The greater being that helps you discern right from wrong, the energy that guides you to Truth, and allows you to see the universe within yourself.
Om Gurubhyo Namaha!
xx, n